Do the potential risks justify stopping development of GM foods when they would be of benefit to the developing countries?

Do the potential risks justify stopping development of GM foods when they would be of benefit to the developing countries?

Genetically modified, or GM, foods are becoming more popular around the world. They offer many benefits as they can be changed so that they can meet their environmental needs. This therefore leads to a higher crop yield. However, with such kinds of advancements the widespread use of them could lead to massive long-term side effects that have not been foreseen. In this essay I am going to cover both sides of the great GM debate.

The main reason for people to use GM foods is to make them more resistant to their environment. For example, a gene from a fish has been introduced to strawberries so that it can with stand icy weather conditions. This would allow strawberries to be grown in cold conditions.

Many people also believe that GM foods can help third world countries that are less fortunate than us.

Developing countries excluding Least Developed Cou...

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There are many diseases in third world that can be cured by simply have more vitamins in their diet. As most of these countries use rice as their base food, scientists have combined a gene from a daffodil, which produces Vitamin A, and added it to rice. This will stop people from becoming blind, as they will be getting enough of Vitamin A. The alternative to this problem is to give them vitamin A supplements, which are expensive on a large scale.

Despite the positive sides of GM foods many people believe that they are wrong and that we should not temper with the environment in such a way. Their view is that there may be long-term effects of the foods. If a gene was placed into a crop it may produce a certain protein that is poisonous.